Harper and Midwest Kind tours, gigs and happenings. Join us on our musical journey around this amazing planet of ours!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Harper and Midwest Kind April, 2015 Blog

Hi everyone,

Its Spring here in the USA! We have a very cool announcement to make: our amazing guitarist of the past few years- Mike Howe and his girlfriend Angie gave birth to a healthy baby boy. We wish Mike all the very best regarding his decision to go off the road to be a great father to his new born son. We welcome Will Rideoutt from Lansing, Michigan on lead guitar- front man of the Big Willie Band to the Midwest Kind lineup!

Harper and Midwest Kind have been booked for a few festivals and club dates in Australia in late October/ November, we are all very excited to be making this trip. Its been quite some time since Bobbi and I have seen our families. We had some fun March shows at The Manistee Spring and All Music Festival in Michigan, held at the stunningly beautiful Ramsdell Theater followed by a wild show at The Cabbage Shed in Elberta. Mash Bar in Ann Arbor was crazy as usual. We had a sold out show at the Mangia Mangia Jazz & Blues Concert Series in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was a completely acoustic show with Mike Howe and Will Rideoutt on acoustic guitar, myself on harp/didgeridoo/ djembe and James Norris on Bass Guitar. It was a truly wonderful send off for Mike Howe. We had to cancel our show at BBs in St Louis, Missouri due to a change in management and their refusal to honor our contract for the show. Unfortunately although we let everyone know on our Facebook page/ twitter and our websites, BBs didn't bother to take our band's name off their calendar. So some people turned up to the show. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience - this made even worse because even the staff at the club were not informed of the cancelation.

For our upcoming tour south please note that Brackins in Maryville, Tennessee has closed and 2 Brothers in Punta Gorda, Florida burnt down a few weeks ago! The Celtic Ray has kindly replaced our Punta Gorda, Florida show by giving us a date on Sunday May 3 at 7pm. So please spread the word. Another amazing venue has opened up in downtown Jackson, Michigan- Grand River Brewery- at Market Place. We have a show there on Saturday May 9th, @ 8pm. They brew their own beer and also its a winery and fabulous restaurant. If this show goes well, Bobbi will be putting together a Sunday afternoon national blues concert series in the fall through her new agency- Hwy Key Touring Artists. So Michigandas please spread the word. It would be super cool to get this event off the ground!

Also happy to announce that in July we will be heading to Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California and Colorado. Please check out the dates below: